By Dow Jones Newswire

Bloomberg News
Asian stock markets dropped Friday, as a global selloff for tech stocks continued in the region amid reports that Chinese spy chips were implanted in products sold outside the country.
Japan’s Nikkei /zigman2/quotes/210597971/delayed JP:NIK +0.93% fell 0.8% following an overnight rebound in the yen /zigman2/quotes/210561789/realtime/sampled USDJPY +0.0105% . As tech stocks sagged in the U.S., chip-equipment maker Tokyo Electron /zigman2/quotes/202883609/delayed JP:8035 +0.06% dropped 2.6% and was at one-year lows. Electronics, consumer goods and energy stocks led the declines. Financials were higher, though, as U.S. bond yields continued to rise, causing equity-investor concerns but being seen as good for lenders and heavy bond investors. Life insurer T&D /zigman2/quotes/208425761/delayed JP:8795 +2.24% was up 1.5% while bank Resona /zigman2/quotes/203178794/delayed JP:8308 -0.42% rose 2%. Meanwhile, electronics maker TDK /zigman2/quotes/208948266/delayed JP:6762 +0.21% and cosmetics firm Shiseido /zigman2/quotes/207601624/delayed JP:4911 +0.54% were down 3%- 4%.
Hong Kong stocks continued to drop after Thursday’s skid left the Hang Seng Index below the Dow industrials on a closing basis for the first time since April 2013. The benchmark /zigman2/quotes/210598030/delayed HK:HSI +0.45% was down 0.2%, off its worst levels of the session. Tencent /zigman2/quotes/204605823/delayed HK:700 +0.21% was down 1.1% and at fresh year-plus lows. Insurer AIA /zigman2/quotes/203565558/delayed HK:1299 -0.42% fell, putting the week’s swoon at about 10%. But HSBC /zigman2/quotes/202687335/delayed HK:5 -1.12% was up almost 1%. A number of Apple Inc. suppliers, such as AAC Technologies /zigman2/quotes/201441510/delayed HK:2018 +0.21% and Sunny Optical /zigman2/quotes/206687505/delayed HK:2382 -1.30% , saw their shares sink following a Bloomberg News report that China may have secretly planted spy chips in some servers used by Apple /zigman2/quotes/202934861/composite AAPL +1.56% and Amazon.com Inc /zigman2/quotes/210331248/composite AMZN +1.26% . Both American tech giants strongly denied the report.
Apple suppliers Foxconn /zigman2/quotes/204111604/delayed TW:2354 +0.54% and Taiwan Semiconductor /zigman2/quotes/207385621/delayed TW:2330 -0.37% fell as well, weighing down Taiwan’s Taiex .
South Korea’s Kospi /zigman2/quotes/210598069/delayed KR:180721 +0.97% slipped 0.3%, as Samsung /zigman2/quotes/209800866/delayed KR:005930 +1.27% shed early gains to drop into the red despite forecasting record operating profit in the third quarter.
Australia was again the lone gainer in the region, as the ASX 200 /zigman2/quotes/210598100/delayed AU:XJO +0.78% rose slightly. Benchmarks in New Zealand /zigman2/quotes/211587880/delayed NZ:NZ50GR -0.41% and Singapore /zigman2/quotes/210597985/delayed SG:STI +0.05% fell, while Malaysia /zigman2/quotes/210598052/delayed MY:FBMKLCI -0.14% was about flat. Markets in mainland China remained closed for a weeklong holiday.
























































